Eric submitted his logo for Johnnys Pizza and left the following comment.

This logo is for a pizza company, based in Pittsburgh, PA. Because of this, I used a silhouette of the Pittsburgh skyline in the logo. It is a small, one location, pizza shop.

The following critique is based on one designers opinion and experience. I always appreciate the readers thoughts as well. So, Ill ask a question of two in the critique, please share your perspective in the comments at the end of this logo design critique.

Design Principals

I see a couple execution problems in this logo right away. First, the red bar that holds the word Pizza doesnt follow the established curve formed by the pizza graphic below. Instead bar ends with straight angular lines that dont compliment the surrounding shapes. Next, the weight of the J and S should match that of ohnny instead of being heavier/bolder. Lastly, the black used on the silhouette of the city isnt balanced with the rest of the mark.

Question for the readers

Functionality / Versatility

When I think of pizza one of the first things that comes to mind is the pizza box. Most of which are 1 or 2 color. Eric, have you thought about how this logo might work on a pizza box? I imagine using the logo as is would be cost prohibitive.

Does the Logo Work for the Audience?

To me, the pizza graphic is overkill. I think the audience will have already made the connection to pizza and since the graphic is poorly executed (possibly more distracting than helpful) Id remove it. Perhaps keeping the circular shape created by it and the red bar above could work to imply the shape of a typical pizza.

Question for the readers

Do you think the pizza graphic in the logo is needed? Does it communicate something to the audience or does it unnecessarily complicate the mark?

Typography

Just because the J and S are larger than the other letters that form the word Johnnys doesnt mean they can be a different weight. Consider adjusting the weight of the inner letters to be thicker or thin the J and S to bring consistency to the letterforms. Another area that should be addressed is the dark glow around the word pizza. It leaves the red color feeling dingy and unappetizing. I think the letters would still be legible without the dark glow.

Possible Improvements

Designing a logo for yourself or own business is one of the hardest logo designs youll ever work on. So what is the best way to improve the logo? Well I think have made some comments above that can certainly offer some direction. Heres a list of actionable items.

Follow the curve from the pizza graphic on the end of the red bar containing the word pizza. Also think about removing the pizza graphic and occupying the space with solid fill the same circular shape representing a typical pizza.

Adjust the typography for Johnnys so that the letters are a consistent weight. Evaluate the dark glow surrounding the word pizza.

Explore ways to balance the black used in the city silhouette.

Perhaps limiting the colors to a two color design will provide a more economical way to reproduce the logo on things like pizza boxes and such.

Overall, I think you have a good start on the logo design. And with some refinement you can definitely improve it. Please know that my intention in critiquing your work is not to hurt feelings, but to offer constructive feedback. I hope it was helpful. Best of luck, to you!

I appreciate and welcome your comments, and look forward to hearing from you soon. I purposely dont cover every possible improvement that can be made to this logo, so go for it if you think I missed anything. All I ask is that you keep your comments clean and appropriate.

The images & logos presented on this blog are copyrighted by their respective owners. The blog itself is copyright Erik Peterson, 2008-2019 All Rights Reserved.

We enjoy your comments

10 Comments so far.
Keep 'em Coming.

#1

By Liron

08.18.2009 at 06:20 PM

I thought this was a cool logo when I first saw it, but these are good comments to point out as well. The city skyline is kind of nice but probably just doesn’t add much value here.

#2

By ewadowsky

08.18.2009 at 06:35 PM

Erik,

I definitely agree with everything you said. It’s a lot easier to see things that need to be fixed when you have an outside opinion…

I think I’ll have to try taking the glow around the ‘PIZZA’ off…I may try figuring out a solution to leave the pizza graphic in there, whether it be fixing it or as you said putting it as a solid color.

If anyone else has any ideas, please send them my way. Especially on the pizza graphic and the silhouette.

Thanks again Erik.

#3

By Fbanczak

08.25.2009 at 04:51 PM

I like the typeface chosen for the logo and the red/yellow palette made by the font and the pizza are appetizing. I think what bothers me the most about the pizza is that it is cut in a strange spot. Rather than being a true half of a pizza it is almost like a third or less which looks weird in the logo. Have you considered making the skyline out of the red outline and dropping the pizza and semi-circle outline at the bottom? Making the outline of the skyline with the red line might remind people of a neon sign (a staple of pizza places in my mind). I feel like as far as addressing the skyline, it is cramped and falls behind the whole mark to my eye, meanwhile the outline around “Johnny’s” comes in really close and sharp around the tops of the letters which helps make the top of the logo feel even more cramped and busy compared with the bottom of the logo. If the outline just gently curved around the top of the middle letters it would look a little more cleaned-up. I hope my comments have helped you! I think this will be an awesome logo when it’s all finished.

#4

By Bridges To Recovery

02.25.2010 at 03:39 PM

Perhaps keeping the circular shape created by it and the red bar above could work to imply the shape of a typical pizza.

I really like the design of Johnny’s Pizza. But whatever critiques counted is not ignorable at all. I hope designer of this logo will take these critiques positively and will complete the logo with perfect shape. Thanks

#7

By Bhumil Shah

06.16.2015 at 09:38 PM

The comments are very good and apt. There are few things which I would like to contribute to it,
1. The skyline proportion, to the font and pizza graphic, should be large. Because when you decrease the size of logo your skyline will not be clearly visible.You have to consider your logo in all the dimensions. On all possible medium. Like your paper napkin or visiting car.

2. The fonts can represent your personality. You can have different font or hand written font too. As this is not franchise, you can show your “personal touch” through fonts too.

3. I feel there should not be more than one highlighting factor of the logo. Here you have skyline and pizza graphic both. It is anyways hard for people to remember the logo in such chaos, so your logo should be simple yet intelligent. if you are writing pizza in the logo and make it bold/attractive enough, you can consider to omit the pizza graphics completely. Less complex logo is more likely to be recognised and remembered.

Hope my comments are useful to you.

#8

By Swayer Scott

06.12.2019 at 06:33 AM

This is a good site for logo designs. There are lots of articles are available regarding different logos. Also, we can create logos the free professional roofing services southern california critiques provided here. They provide better guidelines to improve our designs. I liked this site very much.

#9

By lisaresnick

08.21.2019 at 06:46 AM

Pizza is become most common dish especially people consume it on their lunchtime with office colleague friends. Design of logo is so creative which reflect everything according to the purpose of this Jhonny pizza shop. Brands that make quality best biker jackets mens so they could design their brand logo to engage more people.

#10

By JimmyF

08.29.2019 at 10:05 PM

Wow, i guess these are all things I would not have thought about. The “J” and “S” appear to be the same weight to me but when I take a much closer look, they do have a bold tint to them. I would not have noticed that the “pizza” in red does not have the same circular shape as the actual pizza does. You folks have good eyes for this stuff. All I really know is appliance repair.